The Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity

Outside of my campy obsessive love of the various X-Titles that Marvel has to offer, I am notoriously picky about what types of comics I read. DC main titles will never sway me to their side, I've dabbled in Dark Horse and Vertigo offerings and other than an obsessive love of Gaimen's "Sandman" series and Alan Moore's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" 'verse I am generally left cold. When in the UK a fandom friend of mine that saw me through Harry Potter and reads as obscure lit as I do sent the first volume of "The Unwritten" by Mike Carey and drawn by Peter Gross and I was astounded.

This has everything I want: history, literature meta, fandom nods, amazing writing and a compelling story. We open to the son of the best selling Tommy Taylor novels, about a boy wizard who along with his two sidekicks and magic trumpet save the world, taking the stage at a comics convention to trade on dear old dad's name. His name is Tom Taylor, and as the inspiration for the magic tale he makes a buck or two answering questions about the mystery of his father's disappearance. It's a good life but Tom has no love for the character of Tommy or the fanatics who love the wizard, he also has no love for his neglectful father who did nothing but isolate him and educate him on the history of world literature as though it were the holy gospel. It's not fun, it's a living.

Until Lizzie Hexman, a woman with a Dickensian moniker, bursts into the question and answer portion of the convention, revealing that there is no Tom Taylor and there never was. What follows is part existential crisis, part literary allegory that shows us the literary struggles of Tommy Taylor and his battle with his vampire nemesis Count Amrbosio, part poking fun of of fandom tropes and part wondering where reality ends and stories begin.

Surely the greatest story ever told was the story of Jesus? Just as the story of the Third Reich continues to reign terror long after the physical has gone. We are left to wonder what forces are manipulating reality, what exactly is real and who in the world is Tom Taylor.

If you like literature, metafiction, cleverness, Harry Potter or the idea of mocking Harry Potter fans this is a great read. I am tearing through the remaining 4 volumes, this series is still a work in progress, but I can't wait to see what comes next.